E.L.A.S. CITADEL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21606, 8 January 1945, Page 4

E.L.A.S. CITADEL

OMONIA SQUARE BRITISH CLEARANCE TRAGIC ATHENS SCENES LONDON, Jan. 5. British forces have cleared the Omonia Square in Athens which the E.L.A.S. had held since the beginning of the fighting, says Reuter's correspondent in Athens. The neighbouring areas also have been cleared. E.L.A.S. mortar - bombs which fell in Constitution Square yesterday killed two Brtish officers and seven civilians. Reuter’s Athens correspondent after a tour of the' city stated that the fighting has left great material damage in its wake. Houses wrecked by shells or blown up by dynamite have spilled their rubble into the evil-smelling streets. Five weeks’ garbage lies rotting in the open streets; streams of water from burst mains bubble downhill across the broken pavements and tank-crushed roadways. A gaping hole outside the telephone exchange indicates where a British tank hit a German mine. Shellholes around doors and windows show where snipers' nests were wiped out. Civilians hunt for wood and fuel in the ruined houses, and queue up patiently in the rain for the hot food supplied by British troops. -The •strength of the newly-recruited National Guard .which is dressed in civilian clothes but issued with bandoliers of ammunition, lias been raised to 30 battalions, each consisting of 500 men under 30 officers. Heavy E.L.A.S. Casualties During heavy fighting in Athens on Thursday, the British cut four main roads to the city and captured many food and ammunition dumps, says Reuter’s Athens correspondent. E.L.A.S. casualties were 224 killed and more than 100 wounded. The British apprehended nearly 900 people, but 150 were released after interrogation. The heaviest fighting on Thursday was in the neighbourhood of Omonia Square, where the British advanced six streets northwards in a block-to-block battle which cost the Elas 151 killed and 72 wounded, while 521 were taken prisoner. A small-scale attack on the British military hospital which is isolated in E.L.A.S. territory, four miles from Athens, was repulsed. The E.L.A.S. guards withdrew some days ago after an E.L.A.S. military doctor had visited them. A number of wounded E.L.A.S.-ites and also British were patients in the hosiplal.

The Associated Press Alhens correspondent says that before retreating from New Phaleron. E.L.A.S. troops sprayed a large llour-mili with petrol and set fire to it, destroying about 5000 tons of wheat and Red Cross stores.